Konstantin Stanislavsky

Konstantin Stanislavsky

Konstantin Stanislavsky

Konstantin Stanislavsky

Synopsis

Routledge Performance Practitioners are a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth and twenty-first century performance.These compact, well-illustrated and clearly written books unravel the contribution of modern theatre's most charismatic innovators, through:*personal biography*explanation of key writings*description of significant productions*reproduction of practical exercises.As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student. Konstantin Stanislavsky offers an essential guide to the complex and contradictory nature of this master of theatre.

Excerpt

The challenge for anyone tracing Stanislavsky's biography is that the path isn't linear. Sometimes he ditched an idea only to pick it up again years later; at other times, the preoccupations of his mature life can be traced right back to his childhood. He was full of contradictions and often an artistic maverick. Nevertheless, this is a man who was passionate about theatrical 'truth'. His evolution as a theatre practitioner can be divided into four broad sections: the amateur years, the director dictator, round-the-table analysis and the final legacies. There are times when the work of the director dominated, then for a while the writer became central, and at other times actor-training was foregrounded. Added to all this, there were political events in Russia which influenced his choice of vocabulary, and various artistic 'isms' (including Naturalism and Symbolism) also played their part in defining Stanislavsky's 'system'.